Tag: #Bernie

The Pittsburgh rally will begin at 7 p.m. in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown.

“The immediate task is to defeat one of the worst pieces of legislation ever presented in the history of this country,” Mr. Sanders said in an interview, “legislation that would raise premiums on older workers [and] defund Planned Parenthood.

We need to rally the American people to oppose legislation that would deny people health care to give the rich tax benefits.”

“Right now is not the time to be supporting a protest vote.”
– Bernie Sanders

One-on-one with Bernie Sanders

In my opinion, for anyone to accuse him of being a sell-out, or to now hold the view that they should no longer follow his advice, seems to me to be a possible marker for not really and truly understanding him, what he was and still is all about, what he’s still working for on our behalf, and the reality of how our political processes work.

I’m very much with Bernie on this issue of protest voting in this election cycle.

I agree with him on his support for Hillary.

It’s important to note that he’s not just saying that she’s the only alternative to Trump. It seems to me that he’s speaking pretty clearly and pretty directly in support of her and her positions on real issues.

Here’s what else he says. These excerpted comments come from an exchange which begins around the 5:50 mark if you don’t have time to watch all 9 minutes.

“Election days come and go….Change does not occur in a 2-week period or in a 6-month period. It is a constant struggle……..My goal is to get Secretary Clinton elected, but if you think I’m going to stop the day after, you’re wrong…..Then the goal is to mobilize the American people to make sure that Congress does the right thing….fulfills the platform that we wrote for the Democratic Party, which is the most progressive platform in the history of American politics.”

Is the Democratic Party as progressive as I would like? No. It never has been.

Is that platform and a Clinton presidency a real and meaningful step in the right direction? Yes, I think it is. It’s why, after 36 years as being registered Non-Partisan, I registered as a Democrat in this cycle. It was so that I could vote for Bernie in the closed PA primary.

Bernie was my first choice. He didn’t win. At this point, I think it’s a near-meaningless waste of energy and oxygen to continue to speculate, agonize, and complain over the reasons – real or imagined – for why he lost. It’s done. It can’t be changed. (And, please, spare me the orange jumpsuit predictions. After 35 or 40 years of relentless right-wing attacks, nothing has stuck. Maybe there’s a reason for that other than another layer of conspiracy.)

So, what I’m going to do in November is what Bernie is suggesting that we all do, and that is to vote for Clinton and to continue to advocate for progress toward a better world for everyone by supporting people down-ballot who share that vision.

Sanders has a vision I share. He’s also pragmatic about how and what it will take to realize that vision.

It will take longer than one election cycle.

As a Sanders supporter, if you cast a protest vote in November, you need to understand that Sanders sees it as I do. It’s a vote for Trump.

The answer is simple. I don’t pay attention to right-wing propaganda. What mystifies me is why such an intelligent, well-informed, and well-reasoned individual would.

Here’s the more detailed response. Feel free to copy and paste it as your response to your Buster friends who are asking you these same questions.

—

“In the meantime, did you see or read Clinton Cash yet?”

No, and I’m not planning to watch it. It’s right-wing propaganda just like Citizens United’s “Hillary: The Movie” was.

Why would I give a shit what another hit piece has to say, especially knowing it comes from the likes of Peter Franz Schweizer, a “right wing political consultant,” “president of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) and a former William J. Casey Research Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He is also Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large.”

“How about Crisis of Character?”

“The book was denounced by the non-partisan Association of Former Agents of the United States Secret Service for making “security harder by eroding the trust between agents and the people they protect.”[2] Members of that Association also said that Byrne’s job and role at that time would not have given him the level of access that many of the book’s tales would be dependent upon.[2] Media Matters wrote that in places Byrnes’ account in the book stood in contradiction to his sworn testimony before the Independent Counsel during the Lewinsky scandal in 1998.[4]”

” Or former advisory to Clinton Dick Morris’ book, Armageddon.”

You mean the Dick Morris described below? No. Same reason. It’s right-wing bullshit that I can’t believe you’re buying into.
“Morris said that he would leave the United States if Hillary Clinton were elected president in 2008.[11]
“Morris was the strategist for Republican Christy Mihos’s campaign in the 2010 Massachusetts gubernatorial race[12] and supported Mitt Romney in 2012, predicting that he would achieve a landslide victory. Blogger Andrew Sullivan has named an annual award after Morris, given for “stunningly wrong political, social and cultural predictions.”[13] He has appeared in the past on the Fox News for political commentary, especially appearing on The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity.[14][15] After the 2012 election, Morris did not appear on Fox News for three months, and the network ultimately opted not to renew his contract.[16]”

UPDATE:

It’s worse than I thought…..

“Now he is the chief political commentator and correspondent for The National Enquirer.”

“How much smoke do you have to be surrounded by before you conclude there’s a fire?”

(To be clear, that’s my friend’s question to me. He knows that I was once a very vocal and active Sanders supporter who, like Bernie, now supports Hillary.)

I think you’re seeing fog, not smoke from a fire. What you call smoke, I call the intentional fog of propaganda and brainwashing. Repeat something enough times and people begin to believe it’s true. It’s how it works.
So, the answer to your question might be, “When it’s really smoke from a fire that some right-winger didn’t light.”

Here’s my only question to you (and to all the Busters who refuse to support Hillary):

When did you start becoming a fan and amplifier of this sort of propaganda?

And, please, don’t come back at me with some personal attack, ok?

I answered your questions as you asked. Now I’m asking you. Why do you trust these sources? Is it because they support the narrative you have about Clinton?

40 years in public life and nothing has stuck. After 40 years of trying, if there was even one ounce of ‘there’ there, wouldn’t something – anything – have stuck to her by now?

No, I am not saying she’s an innocent. Not by a long shot. Sadly, one doesn’t get to where she and Bill are and have been in American politics by being pure. What I am saying is that the entire weight of conservatism has been piled against her, and still no jumpsuit.

What bothers me most is watching some of my friends echoing right-wing propaganda.